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Truth or Dare (2018 film)
| story = Michael Reisz | starring = | music = Matthew Margeson | cinematography = Jacques Jouffret | editing = Sean Albertson | studio = Blumhouse Productions | distributor = Universal Pictures | released = | runtime = 100 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = $3.5 million | gross = $93 million }} Blumhouse's Truth or Dare, or simply Truth or Dare, is a 2018 American supernatural horror film directed by Jeff Wadlow and written by Michael Reisz, Jillian Jacobs, Chris Roach and Wadlow. It stars Lucy Hale, Tyler Posey, Violett Beane, Hayden Szeto, and Landon Liboiron, and follows a group of college students who play a game of truth or dare? while on vacation in Mexico, only to realize it has deadly consequences if they don't follow through on their tasks. Jason Blum produced through his Blumhouse Productions banner, and Universal Pictures distributed the film. Released in theaters on April 13, 2018, the film received negative reviews from critics, who said it was "neither inventive nor scary enough to set itself apart from the decades of dreary slashers that came before it". Despite this the film was a massive box office success, grossing $93 million worldwide against its $3.5 million production budget. Plot The movie opens on an unknown girl at a gas station. While buying a pack of cigarettes she appears injured and unstable. As she walks out she grabs lighter fluid from the shelf and sets a fellow shopper on fire. Skip to our main cast Olivia Barron, her best friend Markie Cameron, Markie's boyfriend Lucas Moreno, along with Penelope Amari and her boyfriend Tyson Curran, and Brad Chang go on a trip to Rosarito, Mexico for their last Spring Break. Originally Olivia was going to do habitat for humanity and regularly uploads to her Youtube Channel with videos relating to her charity work. Markie cancelled her habitat work without asking her so she would be able to make the Mexico trip. In Mexico, Olivia runs into fellow student Ronnie who proceeds to harass her until a man intervenes on her behalf. The man introduces himself as Carter and convinces her and her friends to join him for drinks at the ruins of a mansion. There, he initiates a game of "Truth or Dare?". The game ends when Carter reveals that he tricked Olivia and her friends to the mansion to offer them in his place in the supernatural game of Truth or Dare. As he leaves, he explains that the game will follow them and they must not refuse it or they will die. Upon returning home, Olivia begins to see "Truth or Dare?" written in several places. At the library, she sees everyone asking her "Truth or Dare?" until she picks truth and is forced to say that Markie cheated on Lucas multiple times. Olivia then realized that only she saw and heard the truth or dare challenge. Later at a college bar, Ronnie dies when he fails to complete a dare. Olivia, having become convinced that Carter was telling the truth, attempts to convince her friends that the game is real. The game turns to Markie and she is forced to break Olivia's hand. At the hospital, Brad is forced by the game into revealing to his father, Officer Han Chang, his homosexuality. The next day, Tyson lies when he is forced to tell a truth during his medical school interview, and dies by stabbing himself through the eye with his 'lucky' pen. Drunk, Penelope is forced by the game to finish a bottle of vodka as she walks along the roof's edge of their house. She falls from the roof just as she finished the bottle but is saved by her friends. After some online research to try and figure out what was happening the group meets a woman named Giselle, who is also a participant in a separate incarnation of the game. Giselle reveals that her friend Sam, the only other survivor of her incarnation of the game, was responsible for the game becoming a reality in the first place, due to his having wrecked the ruins of the mission in Mexico. The "truth" choice can be chosen only twice before the player is forced to choose "dare" due to the way Giselle and her friends played the game originally. Giselle draws a handgun on Olivia and shoots, confessing that she was dared to kill her. Penelope jumps in front of Olivia and is killed instead. Failing to kill Olivia, the game forces Giselle to shoot herself in the head. Back at their house they attempt to do some more research when Olivia separates to find her charger. A homeless man has broken in to the house and the game uses him to force Olivia's turn. She chooses Dare so that way neither Lucas or Markie would have to and to prevent the game from forcing her to reveal to Markie a secret shes had for years regarding Markie's father's suicide. The game dares her to sleep with Lucas, drawing on her secret feelings for him. Markie, infuriated at the idea of it leaves. Lucas and Olivia complete the Dare but as they do the game uses Olivia to force Lucas to reveal the truth, that he cares for Olivia but that he truly loves Markie. Olivia and Lucas drive to Tijuana and meet with a mute woman and former nun from the church where they played the original game. The woman informs them that they are dealing with a demon she first summoned to get revenge on the priest who was sexually abusing her and the other nuns many years prior. The demon possessed the game of Truth or Dare and can only be stopped if the last person who evoked it sacrifices their tongue into an urn and seals it with wax after an incantation. Brad is later dared to withdraw his father's gun and make him beg for his life. However, in the act, Brad is shot and killed by an approaching officer. At the precinct, the game comes to Olivia who chooses Dare to again avoid having to tell the truth. It dares her to reveal the truth anyway and she is forced to tell Markie that the night her father killed himself Olivia was present. Her father had been laid off, was drunk, and tried to force himself on to Olivia. Markie leaves the precinct upset and furious at Olivia for hiding this for so many years. In her interview with the detective overseeing the cases of all the deceased teens (Olivia's friends as well as the ones from Giselle's group) Olivia learns that Carter is Sam. She realizes that Sam is the one who destroyed the original urn with the nun's sealed tongue which released the demon back in to the world and the game. Olivia, Markie, and Lucas find Sam and force him at gunpoint back to the ruins of the church in Mexico. Sam begins the ritual and is about to sever his tongue when it becomes Lucas' turn to play the game. Lucas is dared to kill either Olivia or Markie, which he refuses and tries to separate himself to buy the girls time to complete the ritual and stop the demon. Unfortunately his plan doesnt work and possessed by the demon, Lucas kills Sam before Sam can complete the ritual to end the game. He then slits his own throat and dies. Olivia has Markie use her turn to then force the demon to reveal whether or not there is a definitive way to end the game with Markie and herself alive. The demon reveals that now that Sam is dead, there is not, but they can draw more people into the game and prolong their turn in it. Olivia hastily records and uploads a video to her YouTube, warning of the game and its rules, before challenging the viewers around the world to Truth or Dare, initiating them. Cast * Lucy Hale as Olivia Barron * Tyler Posey as Lucas Moreno * Violett Beane as Markie Cameron * Hayden Szeto as Brad Chang * Landon Liboiron as Carter / Sam * Nolan Gerard Funk as Tyson Curran * Sophia Taylor Ali as Penelope Amari * Sam Lerner as Ronnie * Aurora Perrineau as Giselle Hammond * Tom Choi as Officer Han Chang * Joe Ochman as the voice of Calux, the demonic entity controlling the game. Production Initially, director Jeff Wadlow explained that he was hired to direct the film after spitballing an opening scene based on the title of the movie in his initial meetings with Blumhouse. Subsequently, he joined with his friend Chris Roach, and his wife, Jill Jacobs, and started thinking of ideas to approach the final concept. Principal photography on the film began on June 7, 2017, and wrapped on July 12, 2017 in Los Angeles. Release The film was initially set for release on April 27, 2018, but in January 2018, the date was moved up two weeks, to April 13, 2018, Friday the 13th. The official trailer for the film was released on January 3, 2018. Reception Box office Truth or Dare grossed $40.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $52.2 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $93 million, against a production budget of $3.5 million. In the United States and Canada, Truth or Dare was released alongside Rampage and Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero, as well as the wide expansion of Isle of Dogs, and was projected to gross $12–15 million from 3,029 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $8.2 million on its first day (including $750,000 from Thursday night previews), $6.8 million on Saturday and a total of $18.7 million over the weekend, finishing third behind Rampage ($34.5 million) and fellow horror film A Quiet Place ($32.6 million). It fell 58% in its second weekend (slightly above-average for Blumhouse horror films), grossing $7.8 million and finishing fifth. The film continued to hold well in its third weekend, dropping 58% again to $3.3 million, finishing seventh. Critical response On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 14% based on 128 reviews, and an average rating of 3.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Truth or Dare slick presentation isn't enough to make this mediocre horror outing much more frightening than an average round of the real-life game." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 35 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale. Simon Abrams of RogerEbert.com gave the film 2/4 stars and wrote that "director Jeff Wadlow and his three credited co-writers don't go far enough towards either of their film's primary impulses—humanizing their immature subjects and/or making them die amusingly sadistic deaths." Exclaim! s Alex Hudson called the film a "by-the-numbers horror that delivers clichés rather than surprises," though added "as dumb as this movie was, I kind of enjoyed it." Variety s Owen Gleiberman called it a "scare-free horror film" and wrote, "The movie isn’t scary, it isn’t gripping, it isn’t fun, and it isn’t fueled by any sort of clever compulsion. It’s just a strangely arduous exercise that feels increasingly frantic and arbitrary as it goes along." Awards and nominations References External links * * Category:2018 films Category:2018 horror films Category:2010s teen horror films Category:2010s horror thriller films Category:American films Category:American horror films Category:American thriller films Category:American horror thriller films Category:American slasher films Category:American supernatural horror films Category:American supernatural thriller films Category:Demons in film Category:American teen horror films Category:Supernatural horror films Category:Spirit possession in fiction Category:Films about games Category:Films directed by Jeff Wadlow Category:Films produced by Jason Blum Category:Films set in Mexico Category:Blumhouse Productions films Category:Universal Pictures films Category:Film scores by Matthew Margeson Category:Film scores by Andrew Kawczynski